Lifeboat Foundation ScientificFreedomShield

Overview

In 1987, The American economist Robert M. Solow won the Nobel Prize for
Economics when he proved that some 90% of economic growth stems from
“technical change”, as he called it, rather than the trinity of capital,
resources, and labor as had previously been assumed when he started work
in the 1950s. Nowadays, the most reliable route to technical change is
through science.

One might expect, therefore, that
the-powers-that-be
would be careful to preserve the sources of new science. Instead, they
increasingly subject them to ill-considered constraints designed to
enhance efficiency and accountability. The consequences of these actions
could threaten the very future of civilization.

21st Century Planck Club

Before about 1970, tenured academics were usually endowed with modest
funding so that they could tackle any problem that interested them
without reference to anyone. Academics could therefore readily satisfy
their curiosity free from external constraints. Many industrial
scientists were similarly free. Consequently, there was no need to
distinguish
Blue Skies Research from other types of research. Creativity
already had maximal support.

After that approximate date,
however,
unconditional sources of funds became increasingly difficult to find.
Today, they are virtually nonexistent. For the first time in science’s
long history, researchers must now submit their proposals in writing to
a
funding agency. In turn, the agencies then routinely subject them to an
arcane set of tests  peer review  designed to flag what they
perceive
as the best, expecting thereby that the rest will probably be lost.

These well-intentioned changes have created lumbering bureaucracies to
ensure compliance. They have also inhibited challenges to convention and
exploration outside the mainstream. This is most unfortunate because
the great discoveries that transformed the 20th century came out of the
blue. There was no demand for them.

Since really original ideas have a low chance to get any funding, people
who want money are forced to follow mediocre mainstream buzzword
research in order to keep food on their table.

The work of such great scientists as Planck, Einstein, Rutherford,
Fleming, Avery, Perutz, Crick and Watson, Townes, McClintock, Black, and
perhaps about 300 more of similar calibre  we call them the Planck
Club 
transformed the 20th century, and spawned huge levels of economic
growth. Life without them would be unthinkable.

Nevertheless, their would-be successors are now unlikely to get funded
because their radical ideas are unlikely to impress their peers before
they have been confirmed. Consequently, there has been a dearth of major
scientific discoveries in recent decades. We are living off the
seed corn. That can only have one outcome.

If civilization is to survive, it is vital that we begin to create a
21st century Planck Club. We cannot know, of course, what major
discoveries they might make. There is therefore an urgent need to
establish Blue Skies Research initiatives that would be worthy of the
name. The concept of Blue Skies
can surely only have meaning if the research it enables is totally free
from external constraint. This means that selection procedures must pass
what we call the Planck Test, that is it could reasonably be assumed
that
they would have led to the support of Planck Club members when they were
starting out.

Patent Trolls

There are companies that exist today that are “patent trolls”. They
gather scientists, researchers, medical specialists, and investors into
one room and they theoretically invent technologies that will not exist
for number of years. Then they patent these ideas for future patent
infringement litigation. This is obviously unethical and
stunts the innovation of the human race.

It is time for the court system to be improved to thwart the “patent
trolls” who are impeding scientific freedom.